Wapiti Mountain - Scramble

August wasn’t a great climbing month for me. Two or three crag and alpine rock trips that didn’t amount to much because of weather or conditions, then my week allotted for big mountain trips had the wettest weather of the summer of 2015.  Just as the worst weather was hitting the mountains from the west coast to the eastern slopes, Raff and I picked the only dry spot in the Rockies; along the eastern slopes near Ya Ha Tinda Ranch. This historic Parks Canada ranch is along the eastern boundary of the park where the Red Deer River exits the park. 

We had a leisurely drive up on Monday and camped at the awful smelling Bighorn Campground.  Literally the whole campground reeks of horse piss and shit.  The campground is the staging area for many private and commercial horse trips into and around the national park.  Unless you like the smell of horse, it is recommended that you camp somewhere else. 

Heading out; Warden Rock on the left, Wapiti Mtn. with clouds on the right.

With the unstable weather, we didn’t know objective to pick, but we were happy to see the peaks along the park boundary didn’t have any fresh snow.  We chose Wapiti Mountain and had a few backups in case the weather didn’t hold.  Up at first light on Tuesday September 1, skies were clear and the wind was calm, but the time we had coffee and breakfast and got on our bikes, the wind was howling from the west and the summit of Wapiti was in clouds. We decided to continue and see what happened. 

The 12km bike approach, Wapiti above has cleared from the high winds.

You can bike the 12 km from the road to the Banff National Park boundary. Then it is about 6 km along the excellent Red Deer River trail (old road), then north about 3 km along the also excellent Tyrrell Creek trail.  We exited the Tyrrell Creek trail about 51.695743, -115.795427 to gain the broad South West slopes of the meandering South Ridge of Wapiti Mountain. The original plan was to follow the South Ridge all the way to the top, but once we crested the top of the ridge, it appeared to wind too much west and north, with a significant drop.

Our first view to the summit, dropped 250m to the gain scree slope to summit ridge.

Even though it meant dropping about 250 metres, we did a straight line from our point to the summit. Quick drop into the scree basin south of the summit, then up the broad scree ridge slightly west and north of the summit. Then a mindless 650 metres of scree slogging to the summit ridge. Easy scree walk to the summit of the 3033 metre summit of the rarely ascended Wapiti Mountain.

Old School WB on the 3033m summit of Wapiti Mtn.

The summit register was soaking wet and only contained Rick Collier’s party from 1991. The wind and wind chill was insane, but we endured the blast to enjoy this unusual view of the Rockies.  About 8 hours from the car, about 26 km and 1750 metres of gain from the car. We made great time on descent, but the re slog up 250 metres was draining, then we rushed to make the Tyrrell Creek trail before dark, then rushed more to make the Red Deer River trail before dark; just found our cairn on the main road at dark. Quick return to our bikes, then the fun bike back. All in all, 14 hours, about 52 km, and about 2000 metres of gain.  The next morning we woke to light rain, so we packed up and headed home.  Great remote summit, but a mindless slog. 

Only one party in the register. Rick Collier and party from 1991.

View on descent. Windy and very cold, but clearing to the west.

View back up scree slog to summit ridge.